Page:Report from the Select Committee on Steam Carriages.pdf/12

Rh a new invention, especially one which will at first appear detrimental to the interests of so many individuals. This difficulty can only be surmounted by a long course of successful, though probably unprofitable, experiment. The great expence of the Engines must retard the progress of such experiments. The projectors will, for a long period, work with caution, fearing not only the expence incurred by failure, but also that too sudden an exposure of their success would attract the attention of rivals. It is difficult to exemplify to The House how small and apparently unimportant an adaptation of the parts of the machinery, or of the mode of generating or applying the Steam, may be the cause of the most rapid success; yet he who by a long course of experiment shall have first reached this point, may be unable to conceal the improvement, and others will at once reap the benefit of it.

The Committee are convinced, that the real merits of this invention are such, that it may be safely left to contend with these and similar difficulties; there are others, however, from which the Legislature can alone relieve it. Tolls, to an amount which would utterly prohibit the introduction of Steam Carriages, have been imposed on some roads; on others, the Trustees have adopted modes of apportioning the charge which would be found, if not absolutely prohibitory, at least to place such Carriages in a very unfair position as compared with ordinary coaches.

Two causes may be assigned for the imposition of such excessive Tolls upon Steam Carriages. The first, a determination on the part of the Trustees, to obstruct, as much as possible, the use of Steam, as a propelling power; the second, and probably the more frequent, has been a misapprehension of their weight and effect on roads. Either cause appears to the Committee a sufficient justification for recommending to The House, that legislative protection, should be extended to Steam Carriages, with the least possible delay.

It appears from the Evidence, that the first extensive trial of Steam as an agent in draught on common